On the Buses

Thanks to some great information about bus travel from fellow hostelers in Santiago, when we realised we would have to wait a couple more weeks for the bike we decided to see some of the more distant sights on our bucket list by bus. It has been a good decision and we will be back in Valparaiso tomorrow to start the bike trip. Meanwhile we have spent a few days resting up in Mendoza, the heart of Argentina's wine region. A beautiful city about the size of Christchurch with lots of lovely Plazas and malls. From there we bused to Buenos Aires which wasn't on our agenda, but we loved the atmosphere of the city. Had a quick tour around to get the overview and intended to get back to the areas of interest to us by foot the next day, but it bucketed down instead. As luck would have it, we wandered the shopping precincts looking for shelter from the storm for the day (we had checked out of our hotel, as were busing out that night) and stumbled upon a shopping mall to die for! Galleria Pacifico was fantastico, just had to buy something. Yep, the shopping has started! From Buenos Aires we overnighted to Puerto Iguazu and visited the Iguazu Falls. We were blown away. We had high expectations for this and they were surpassed. How they built the walkways is a mystery to us but don't go there if you have vertigo!! 7 million litres per second coming over the falls and the walkways are right on the edge and its a long way down. The boat trip under the falls was insane.The pictures wont do it justice. From there we bused 4 hours south to San Ignacio Mini and visited the Jesuit ruins. Another tick off our "things to see and do" list and again our expectations were surpassed. Even the sound and light show in the rain was mesmorising. We decided with the amount of time left before we needed to be back at Mrs Val Paraiso's we would return to unfinished business in Buenos Aires and are pleased we did. We had three days of great weather to explore the city in more depth, Eva Peron's mausoleum at the Recoleta Cemetary was a highlight and Donald enjoyed his military thing in the Argentine's Naval museum on an old sailing ship and visiting the Falklands War Memorial.